60 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



Anderson was going to Kakabonga in June, 1879, 

 and camped one night on the east side of Birch Lake 

 on the Ottawa, about 50 miles north-east of Grand 

 Lake Post. 



He and his outfit of two canoes met Pah-pah-tay, 

 chief of the Grand Lake Indians, travelling with his 

 family. He called Anderson's attention to the shape 

 of the point which had one good landing-place, a little 

 sandy bay, and told him the story he heard from his 

 people of a battle that was fought there with the 

 Iroquois long, long ago. 



Four or five Iroquois war-canoes, filled with warriors, 

 came to this place on a foray for scalps. Their canoes 

 were drawn up on the beach at night. They Hghted 

 fires and had a war-dance. Three Grand Lake Algon- 

 quins, forefathers of Pah-pah-tay, saw the dance from 

 hiding. They cached their canoe, one of them took a 

 sharp flint — "we had no knives or axes then" — ^swam 

 across to the canoes, and cut a great hole in the bottom 

 of each. 



The three then posted themselves at three different 

 points in the bushes, and began whooping in as many 

 different ways as possible. The Iroquois, thinking it 

 a great war-party, rushed to their canoes and pushed 

 off quickly. When they were in deep water the canoes 

 sank and, as the warriors swam back ashore, the 

 Algonquins killed them one by one, saving alive only 

 one, whom they maltreated, and then let go with a 

 supply of food, as a messenger to his people, and to 

 carry the warning that this would be the fate of every 

 Iroquois that entered the Algonquin country. 



